Today, I felt like I was some old folk. When I woke up, I could hardly get myself off the bed. It’s all because of PE yesterday. My thighs ache, my arms ache and my back aches too. When I reached school, I learnt that I wasn’t the only one facing these partial disabilities. Anyway, it just goes to show how unfit I am since I hardly exercise.

It’s been about a month since school started and I’m almost done adjusting to the new environment. The new students have a gap to fill before we can be somewhat on par with the rest of the school. Math was pretty scary at first, but it’s getting better.

Somehow, looking back on my past has been making me feel incapable of achieving much. I was a mediocre, worse than average kind of student before, and now I find myself face to face with the people who were high above me, and still are. But on the bright side, my progress has been a step-by-step one, linearly related to the gradually challenging environments. Maybe this is just another step of the way…

Now, I shall go back to reading Huck Finn.

Yesterday, TF went to 4 houses to bai nian, something that happens every year. For the first time, I didn’t write out my script for worship leading. Since I had to lead 4 short worship sessions at each house, I figured I’d just think about what to say and improvise along the way.

I’ve been thinking, there are pros and cons to leading worship frequently (I was looking through the worship script files on the com and counted 10 in the past year). The main advantage is that I rarely feel even a tinge of nervousness nowadays and planning the worship isn’t too challenging. The down side is that recently, I realised I’ve been lacking in the most important step of preparation – prayer. When the confidence goes up, the prayer tends to go down.

Today, I had to lead the CNY traditional costume competition during sunday school. It was my first time addressing the whole room of people, but surprisingly, I felt relatively normal. I’m glad the feedback has been positive so far. But I think I need to expand my Chinese vocabulary.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s easier (and nicer) to improvise on short songs rather than hymns. Although hymns come with SATB score, it’s hard to part with the original notation. For example, today, all Jean and I had on our music stand was a stack of power point slides, so we read the lyrics and tried to harmonise. In other words, we anyhow whacked and mom said it sounded as if someone arranged our parts.

My Chinese New Year holiday has just come to a close. I enjoyed the long break. Apart from clearing up my pile of work, I was able to spend time with relatives, relax and unwind.

Now I think I’m charged enough and ready to face the hectic school life I’ve been warned about. I know it’s going to be tough, but yes, yes, I know, what doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.

Another reason I’m feeling so accomplished is because I’ve found a Physics EE topic that interests me. Now I have to do more research and get down to the specifics of what I want to explore.

It’s been a busy week. Orientation was fun, but it’s really a pity everyone has to split up just after getting to know each other more.

I met my new class today. Fortunately, there 4 girls in my class (including me) out of 27. I’m feeling intimidated because there are highly intelligent people in my class (scholars and GEPers). But on the bright side, maybe stress is good. I wouldn’t have been able to improve to where I am today if not for the change of environment I had in P6.

Today, there was CNY celebration in school. After school, I spent the rest of the day out for a third outing with my og.

Jie Ying, if you happen to see this, have a safe trip to Melbourne! Hope you have fun studying there.

It’s been a busy and stressful week of lectures and piling up of assignments. I need the gears in my brain to start cranking. On the bright side, the whole of next week will be spent on orientation games and other less mass-brain-cell-massacre activities.

For the swimming meet, my 4x50 medley relay team came in last, but won silver. No wonder I was told that if you’re a girl, just sign up for any sports event and you’ll definitely win a medal. We were up against a strong team of year 6s, so we weren’t exactly aiming to win. Oh and it was extremely awkward at the swimming pool cus apart from the 8 girls competing in my event, the practice pool was crowded with guys. So you can imagine..

I’ve decided on my CCA – Philharmonic Orchestra, which is a string ensemble. I’ll probably be one of the lousiest players there. But I’m still confused over why the teacher didn’t want to hear me play first before accepting me.

I signed up for an interest group – Gardening. When I told mom and Jean, both of them literally went HAHAHAHA… for a good 5 minutes. Dad was so stunned he found peace only after I told him my main CCA would be the ensemble. After getting over my shocking news, mom decided I would come in handy at home – so that I can help tend to dad’s mini garden (our plant box just outside the window with dying tomato plants, but it’s dad’s pride).

It’s my fourth day of school and I’m already facing assignments. I have a pile of things to read. Arghhhh. I hope I survive.

I have no idea how I was convinced to sign up for the swimming competition. There’s heats for one event tomorrow. The last time I swam was… ages ago.

On a side note, Jean and mom are so noisy… Jean has been eating dinner for the past half an hour and keeping mom entertained with her political comments/predictions for the next century. I can’t work with so much noise.